- Photos courtesy of McNeese Athletics
Cowboy Football
The Cowboys snapped a five-game losing streak with a 27-0 shutout over the Houston Christian Huskies Saturday during the university’s Homecoming match-up at Navarre Stadium. Fueled by a lively homecoming crowd and strong performances on both sides of the ball, the Cowboys earned one of their most complete wins of the season.
Early in the game, McNeese’s offense settled into a rhythm, with the passing attack producing key plays downfield. At the same time, the Cowboy defense held its own, limiting the Huskies’ scoring opportunities and forcing multiple turnovers.
McNeese’s record improved to 2-5, while Houston Christian’s record dropped to 2-5.
The victory capped off a week full of homecoming celebrations and school spirit, as students, alumni and fans filled the stands to support the blue and gold. McNeese will look to carry this momentum into Saturday’s match-up against Nicholls.
Head Coach Matt Viator expressed satisfaction with the results.
“Good team win for us,” Viator said. “Did a lot of good things offensively, obviously starting with a shutout. We had a couple interceptions and limited the explosive plays, [I] was pointing out to the team that you know, obviously, you have to play good defense to get a shutout.”
Cowgirl Volleyball
The Cowgirls continue to be a hit-or-miss program as they scored a victory over Northwestern State in a 3-0 set match sweep Oct. 15 but fell 2-3 against East Texas A&M Oct. 18. The Cowgirls got swept 0-3 against UTRGV Thursday.
McNeese and Northwestern were statistically close, with all three sets within 5 points. McNeese won the first set in a 25-21 match. The Cowgirls scored 16 kills in 33 attempts against the Demons, 13 kills in 30 attempts. McNeese then took victory in the second and third matches, in a 25-20 and 25-23 set victories.
In the Oct. 18matchup versus East Texas A&M , McNeese won the first two sets, 25-18 and 25-19, and looked like it would wrap up the match early. But the Lions rallied, winning the third and fourth sets 25-22 and 25-19, and setting up a fifth set.
McNeese and East Texas kept it close in the early going, at one point being at 4-3. But it was at this moment that the Lions started pulling away, moving up to 8-5. The Cowgirls tried to rally back, bringing the game back to 8-7. It was a continuation of back-and-forth between the two competitors until McNeese finally took the lead back, 15-14. But the Lions made their final push, winning the match 17-15 in 3 consecutive scores.
On Thursday, McNeese lost in straight sets (25-10, 25-18, 25-20) against UTRGV. Their current standing is 6-15 overall and 2-7 in the SLC.
McNeese will take on Texas A&M – Corpus Christi Saturday at 1 p.m. at the Townsley Law Arena.
Cowgirl Soccer
McNeese went from high to low to mid as they defeated Lamar 2-1 Oct. 12, lost to Northwestern 0-3 Oct. 16, and tied 1-1 with Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Thursday.
The Cowgirls took the lead in the first half of the Lamar game, scoring the first goal. At the 65th minute, they scored their second goal of the game, only for Lamar to launch an offense right after, which allowed them to score their first and only goal of the game.
In the battle against Northwestern, McNeese was outshot 8-20 in attempts on the goal. Out of their 20 shots, the Demons scored three while McNeese had no shots to hit the net.
Texas A&M – Corpus Christi gave the Cowgirls a run for their money on Thursday as they scored the first goal of the game in the first 13 minutes. The Cowgirls got a hit in right before halftime time and the rest of the match was spent with both teams battling for an advantage over the other. The game saw 17 fouls and three cautions, with seven of those fouls belonging to McNeese.
McNeese will take on Houston Christian at 1 p.m. Sunday in Texas.
